Portland Pilot Spotlight

Background

Working with the city of Portland was a truly inspiring experience in community action. With Portland being the largest city in Maine, they have a lot of dedicated people and resources at their disposal to make a difference in their local food system. That being said, every time Food Rescue MAINE has had the opportunity to collaborate with the city of Portland, they were able to customize and elevate our work to best fit their unique needs. The dedication of their community individuals and organizations really set them apart. 

Getting Started

Originally, we only planned to help Portland develop a single transfer station at Riverside. Once the planning for this site had begun, the city of Portland made the decision to expand their food recycling efforts by adding a transfer station at every community garden in Portland.

photo of Riverside Transfer Station. This photo depicts two green bins
Riverside Transfer Station
Located at 910 Riverside St, Portland, ME 04103

Community Challenge Spotlight

How to create a food recycling program with high levels of community participation?

While Portland had no problems setting up transfer stations at their five community gardens, the biggest challenge in this community was to encourage strong participation in food recycling and community education. We learned that the best way to increase resident participation is to actually seek input and participation from the community before the transfer stations are developed. This way, community members are ready and anticipating these resources before they are even ready- ensuring a great jump start.

image of Clark Street Transfer Station and community garden, Portland

Recommended Actions

  • Engage with your residents from the start
  • Allow your residents to help develop the solutions
  • Use your community’s preferred communication tools to build awareness of the food waste solutions – e.g., social media and live events

Results

Portland now has transfer stations at four additional locations. Here, residents can come anytime to drop off their food waste. Agricycle services all of Portland’s transfer stations, so they pick up the waste here and recycle it using anaerobic digestion- a process that turns organic waste into usable energy. 

image of Libbytown Transfer Station, Portland

Libbytown

Located on 175-193 Douglass St Portland, ME 04102

Image of Clark Street Transfer Station, Portland

Clark Street

Located on 32 Salem St, Portland, ME 04102

Image of North Street Transfer Station, Portland

North Street

Located at 195 North St, Portland, ME 04101

Portland composting sign

Boyd Street

Located at 2 Boyd St, Portland, ME 04101